What women's rights look like when the two sides come together as one.
What women's rights are when women are no longer manipulated by party rhetoric.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

We Are Hearing The Final Death Knell of Leftist Feminism

Cynthia Ruccia

Hear that noise this past week? You know, that one from Hilary Rosen and all of the uproar that ensued? Been hearing that kind of noise lately---- such as the Republican War on Women meme that apparently, according to the Dems, was started by the Republicans themselves (to what end one can't even imagine)? The talk of only the Democrats are woman friendly, etc and so on? Heard all of that?

What you are REALLY hearing is the final death of an era. The last days of the left owning women's interests are here. Oh, it's not going to die pretty. It will not be a spiritual, moving, sad death. It's going to be the biggest fight of all. The lefty feminists will not go down silently. They will kick, scream, threaten, insult, and be the biggest bullies you've ever seen. They will throw out every weapon available including letting the male interests who are using them continue to manipulate them all the way to the grave. Oh it's going to be butt ugly.

It's going to resemble the juiciest of operas. Just when the heroine appears to finally be gone, she raises her head and sings the most beautiful, tragic music of all. Just when the last gasp seems to have happened, she wakes up and has a second wind for an entire new act. Oh yes, it is this type of melodrama we are witnessing.

We get to hear over and over and over and over and over and over (you get my drift here) again how OMG----you HAVE to understand that WE are the only ones who care about women, we leftist Democrats, because we support such and such legislation (and then you get a brutally snooze-worthy in-the-weeds dissertation of policy minutiae). And THEY are anti-woman because they don't support it. THEY are bad bad bad-----don't you see that???? They HATE women!!!!! Why are you so dense that you don't see that????

And ad nauseaum we get to hear about all of the reproductive rights nightmares of what the world will be if we don't play by the leftist feminist rules. Threats, name calling, demeaning insults, dehumanizing characterizations of everyone who doesn't see the world their way. Class snobbery-------oh yes, class snobbery as in "you are so stupid because you didn't go to the right school, have the right upper middle class upbringing, your SAT scores were in the basement, you didn't have the means to grow up knowing the only right way to look at things. Oh, and by the way-----you're not even a woman."

This is what the politically dying types do when their philosophies aren't resonating. They get frustrated and then they start throwing bricks at anyone who doesn't see it their way. Happens all the time and on both sides of the aisle. Thing is, this stand off for leftist feminism is becoming and has become something else, and the leftists have been so busy trying to survive their own message that they haven't noticed how the times have moved on while a fresh new wave of feminism is being born.

Let's go back to the "legislation" brick thrown out. The legislation that is called "woman friendly" that is constantly being touted by the left as a litmus test of pro-womanhood is not really that. What it is is legislation that IF PASSED sounds like maybe it could help women. There's the rub. This legislation is NEVER going to be passed. It has been pending most of it for 40 years. And during those 40 years, women's advancement has hit a brick wall (is that where those bricks are coming from---LOL!!!).

There are several reason that the legislation won't pass. First of all, even if women really like this legislation, there aren't enough women in Congress (17%) to force it to be seriously considered. This legislation has served one and only one purpose-----it has given men cover to say that they are prowoman without having to put their money where their mouth is. These pieces of legislation rarely make it out of committee. Even when the Democrats controlled everything, which has been several times over the past 40 years, what kind of progress has been made past the initial Second Wave progress in the early 70's?

Secondly, the Republicans will never pass much of this stuff, and not necessarily because they are anti woman either. A case can be made that they are, but then the mirror image case can also be made that the Democrats aren't woman friendly either. The reality is that in general Republicans are not in synch with the idea that government should legislate these things. We can get into a heated argument about whether THAT is an antiwoman smoke screen. Truth is that is can be, but hey, the argument about what the role of government is is as old as the United States itself. As long as this argument goes on, women's interests will get twisted up in it, and things will get stalled AS THEY HAVE BEEN for 40 years.

Thirdly, countries that HAVE passed quota legislation and other types of "woman friendly" legislation have shown that in practice these laws don't advance women's interests as much as people thought they would. And certainly things that have been mandated in the public sector have NOT trickled down into the private sector.

So why are the lefty feminists, who think they are the be all and end all of prowomanhood, pursuing losing strategies and saying that they are the only thing standing between us and being blasted back into the Stone Age? Their strategies DON'T WORK!!! They have an abysmal success record as of late (like the past 40 years). Why should we put all of our eggs in a losing basket?

I have written ad nauseum about the reproductive rights fights. For more details read the link. I'm only going to say that that argument has advanced as well with the passage of time and with new technologies. And there are good people fighting that one out on both sides. And while they fight it out, we need to pay attention to the other unfinished business facing us.

So expect to be twisted in a knot with anger, frustration, and rage as we watch left wing feminism die a terrible death. But let's celebrate what the rest of us know:

1) we have many, many glass ceilings to break and our tine to make the final push to break them is now

2) we are all in this fight together-----divided, we cannot advance. We can't afford to be "us and them" anymore

3) even if we think differently, we owe it to future generations of girls to tell them the truth. And that truth is that we must stick together and use our collective force to break the glass ceilings so that THEY, our future female leaders, can truly be anything they want to be. That is not the case at the present time.

I know I know-----it's unseemly to suggest that the leftist feminists need to just take us all out of our misery and get it over with. It's not going to work that way. We will all fight death when it faces us and they are no different. But please know that a new day is dawning, a fresh breeze is blowing, and 2012 will be remembered as the election season that got rid of the old to make way for the new. Female economic and power parity, here we come!!!!

15 comments:

There is no woman's party. Not left, not right. Not red, not blue. Not Democrats and not Republicans. Both parties have used women's issues for generations. All too many women have sold their votes cheaply. This needs to change.

We need to make it very, very clear, that we are tired of and will no longer accept talking points and sound bites. Actions are the only things that we will accept.

As for those lefty women who think they own the issues, I quit listening to them a long, long time ago. They don't speak for me or to me.

I agree with you that traditional leftist feminism is dying an ugly death. Once upon a time I would have been concerned about it, but now I am kind of reveling in it. And the reason is because I have heard their messages since 2008, and their messages translate into "you're not feminist enough." As in to me, personally. The women they attack on the right are women who I have far more in common with than I do the women's studies set (and I majored in WS for a while, mind you, before I figured out there was zero economic promise to such a degree). Liberal coastal feminists with their privilege and jargon don't speak for me. In fact, they have failed me directly and then insulted my intelligence by trying to exploit the problems I face as a working class woman for the purpose of securing my vote. Screw that. Secure my future before you secure my vote, ladies.

That said, I have featured this article at my new daily newsletter, Power of Women (PoW for short, heh): http://paper.li/annabellep/1334417850# Hope you and your readers will check it out and subscribe if you like it!

everyone should start reading PoW----finally we have a news aggregator for women without a political slant. How refreshing, and how important for us to have this at this time when we are birthing a new women's movement!!!!

What legislation are you talking about? Paycheck Fairness Act? The lefty feminists don't hold their own party to the same standards they hold the Republican party. Right now, they are pushing Romney on LL and PFA. Why don't the make Obama promise to pass it if re-elected? He's so into the women vote right now, now is the perfect time to get some real progress for women. I understand the arguments against PFA. However, lefty feminists think it is a great thing so why don't they push their own party to say they're going to make it a high priority. When the Dems had control of both houses, they couldn't pass the PFA. Did anyone hear Obama giving speeches about the importance of PfA back then? I didn't. Did anyone read any op-ed pieces in the NYT or other papers about why PFA was so important it should be passed? I didn't. That's all part of the party machine. The Dem party machine wasn't turned on to pass PFA bc they simply don't care if it passes. They know they'll get Dem women votes no matter what simply by dandling the reproductive rights carrot. So why should they waste political capital and machinery on a politically unnecessary act. If I were CAthy McMorris Rodgers or Kelly Ayotte, the next time a media person asks them why they didn't support PFA, I'd say "Tell the women's groups to ask Obama to promise he'll pass this next year. Come back and talk to me about it after he makes that promise." He's not going to make it so why should Romney? Who is the party of women and who is at war with women? Let's face some reality ladies.

Oh, Cynthia! Your post is excellent: on point, hilarious, clever and invigorating!Thank you!And btw, it's not only what Hillary Rosen said, but for me, what really stung was the WAY she said it....with such disgust and venom. That really hurt me, deeply and personally, because I gave up a career to raise our daughter (and we could have used two salaries when she was young, believe me!)

it is so sad how undervalued women who stay at home are. They are treated like dummies, and it is not only very very hurtful, it is incredibly sexist. I was shocked to see how far down women who profess to be feminists have sunk....

As you and I and many others know, stay-at-home mothers are the best multitaskers on the planet. They have to know a fair amount about economics because their budgets have to balance and they need to have more than a passing knowledge about a whole passel of subjects. Why anyone would want to belittle this job is beyond me. And those folks on the left who insist that Ann Romney and those like her have no right to an opinion about how things do and should work in this country scare me. What's free speech about and why are her opinions any less important than anyone else's? That's why this increasing looks like a desperate last gasp of leftist feminism to survive. These are desperate tactics indeed. Very very sad. We women have more inmportant things to do than to turn on one another.......

The problem is this: Individual women can smash glass ceilings. They have been cracking and smashing those for awhile. But marble governmental ceilings will not be smashed. So every true feminist is going to have to swallow others' differences and chip at them together until they are finally chipped out and removed. Let's focus on our common needs and care for each other!

I spend a lot of time trying to convince the left that they (We, since I am a liberal) are going to have to work with women on the right and actually vote for republicans. It is not an easy sell. But I do not see how we have a woman's movement without all women. We talk about being the majority, but how are we going to do that if we do not like and refuse to vote for women we disagree with. How the hell else do we reach a majority?

"The reality is that in general Republicans are not in synch with the idea that government should legislate these things"

But the problem with Republicans is they use that as an excuse to not pass legislation helpful to women's needs AND then the go out and try to pass a bunch of meddlesome government laws to interfere with and micro manage women's lives. Republicans are completely illogical when they rage against mandatory birth control coverage being required but don't even discuss Viagra coverage being immoral for unmarried men and unfaithful men and therefore it too should be left off of government mandated insurance.

And the Democrats latest point seems to be if a woman doesn't receive pay for doing a job then her work is not valuable or relevant to society.

Women are the majority of voters and if Republicans can't figure out that it is stupid to pander to a small but very loud band of right wing anti woman radicals since it alienates the majority of voters (women)then they are too stupid to run the government.

Recommended Reading

Dirty Words on Clean Skin by Author, Anita Finlay. This shocking exposé travels beyond Hillary Clinton's historic run to reveal a biased media's influence over our electoral process and the sexist brainwashing that does damage to us all.